Wizardry 8

The Good
When I heard that Sir-Tech was making this game, I couldn't wait to play it. Over a decade ago, Bane of the Cosmic Forge and Crusaders of the Dark Savant enthralled me with their turn-based combat systems, truly different, imaginative and intelligent monsters and a captivating, original story of good versus evil. The ending in Crusaders left you wondering what the Dark Savant would do next ... what would become of the world now that he had taken off with the Astral Dominae? Yes, Wizardry 8 concludes the story ... and does it very well!

To help tie the old to the new, the introduction is presented to you in shades of brown and ivory as still pictures slide across the screen during the narrative. Choosing characters for your party comes next (in full color) .. and they are a diverse group with a good variety of faces and talents. Veterans to the series will notice several new classes and races in male as well as female. Choose the ready-made "sample party" or create up to 6 of your own from scratch. The designers made an intuitive and helpful character creation interface - a right-click answers all your questions about every aspect of it.

In between performing your "hack and slash" functions, an intricate, evolving story is told. Your main objective is to retrieve a trinity of objects (including the Astral Dominae) and then take them to Ascension Peak where, as legend has it, someone will ascend and become "Cosmic" Lords. Numerous sub quests are incidental to securing those items, but, of course, give you essential experience points.

You'll meet two opposing factions who, although both want to destroy the Dark Savant as much as you do, are convinced that the other is their enemy. With a little forethought, you can form an alliance with both factions and, in the end, bring about a truce and have them join together with you against your common enemy.

Character dialogs (both of your party members and NPCs) are the best part of this game, and I must say the same for the people who voice-acted them. Your party members will randomly make comments about the quest at hand, the city or place, the people and more. Each person has his/her own way of telling you that they are hurt or sick, are out of ammo and to confirm your orders. In battle, each one also has a unique "Heave Ho!" .. and they even exclaim differently when they've done well. (When my Ranger has an exceptional "kill", she cries out "I remain dominant!", while my Lord says simply, "Excellent!") And .. NPCs have changing dialog and can be asked about a large variety of topics on which they will answer. You can set the dialog to an "automatic" type mode so that key words, people, places are added as "topics" to ask about. Plus you can add your own words and phrases! Makes it mighty interesting!

In my opinion, the character animations and battle actions are "a cut above", making the fight sequences really fun to watch. The graphics of the world around you is pretty darned good and drawn very well. Another reviewer mentioned "monsters partly in walls" ... well, yes, that happened occasionally, but usually it was a crab with sharp claws coming through the walls of a grass hut! Now that's realistic!

And speaking of battles, the fight interface is really good. Right-click your mouse or touch a key (or combination thereof) to select an action (i.e. M to cast a magic spell, U to use an item, L to repeat the last command). I chose to play in the turn-based "phased" manner for the whole game rather than "continuous" because I like the most control. Casting a magical spell is as easy as using a potion. Even low-level spells can still be effective with later game monsters since their intensity gets higher as you get stronger.

The "creatures" seem to be pretty smart and dexterous too, dodging, moving about the screen, and casting spells on their own. And there are hundreds of them, some familiar and some brand new, to keep you mighty busy -- all with unique animations and sounds for their species. If you have a ranger in your party, you can select him/her and right click on a monster to see its unique strengths, weaknesses, type of attack and immunities, and then plan your attacks accordingly. If your foe is 100% immune to Fire, for instance, you'll have no effect whatsoever with a Fireball spell! And just when you've become used to casting magic all the time, you'll enter a "no magic" zone ... or you'll find yourself under water where no fire magic works! That's where the numerous potions, powders and bombs come in handy!

Other things I liked:

• Multi-layered area "auto" maps on which you add notes
• Unlocking doors, chests with an unusual (and challenging) "lock-pick" technique
• Much more for your Bard and Thief (2 professions often ignored in other games)
• Varied landscapes and locations
• Unlimited Save Game slots with 3 Quick Save and Auto-Save functions
• Decisions made during gameplay can change your ending
• Teleport over long distances using "Set Portal" and "Return to Portal" magic spells (for characters high enough in magic) plus 2 permanent ones
• So many magical spells that you may never see all of them
• A well-written, truly useful manual
• Radar screen that shows locations of collectible items and monster locations
• Good value for the buck ... it takes a -very- long time to finish

In addition, there are 4 different endings! One depends upon whether an important quest was finished, while the other 3 are based upon a decision you make during the "end game" portion.

**The Bad**
My complaints are few. I loved Wizardry 8 so much that, even with these quirks, I wanted desperately to finish it!

1. The minimum system requirements aren't enough! While the game will install and run on a Pentium II 233Mhz machine, attempting to perform even the smallest of functions (like moving the mouse cursor on the screen) is literally painful. The game crawled on my PII 400MMX (even with 256Ram), but it flies on my Pentium III 1000Mhz laptop. BTW, no "recommended" system requirements are contained in any of the written material.
   
   
2. Evidently the first release of the game was produced on inferior CDs and they can wear out! (This according to a message on the Sir Tech forums). Because files on my CD#3 refused to load (the game hung up as soon as it was inserted), I had to buy the game again. My second copy is the "Game of the Year Edition" which seems to be much better. Because of the copyright protection, I failed in all attempts making a personal backup copy.
   
   
3. I got tired of the battle music, but after awhile I "tuned it out" and really didn't notice it. Each locale does have unique music but none of those tracks were really exciting.

**The Bottom Line**
This game has been added to my "Top 10 RPG Favorites" ! Wizardry 8 is simply marvelous! It has all of the elements you'll want in a Role Playing Game: turn-based combat - easy to use, intuitive interface - complex, interesting story - loads of characters and monsters with personalities all their own - plus user customizations for keyboard shortcuts - and so much more!

The Good
This is one of the top 5 cRPGs of all times. It's got adventure and loot and monsters, oh my! Like other Wizardry-series games, it's helpful to understand the stats and levelling system, but for a change, it's not absolutely necessary.

There's a huge world to play in and you'll find yourself spooked by insects in the swamp and without a place to hide in the desert. The atmosphere will keep you coming back for more.

Quests and puzzles are not as open-ended or numerous as in previous Wiz games, but that will please everyone but the die-hard fans. (Be careful: a few guide books and websites get some info wrong, based on the BETA.)

A fantastic new class, the Gadgeteer, adds to the bountiful set of team choices. While I don't recommend switching classes first time through the game, it's possible to play almost any combination and have a good time.

There are tons of battles (perhaps too many), but that seems to be a handicap of the genre for some reason. You can tweak the toughness of encounters (tied to your strongest character), but, alas, not the frequency. I like tweaking my RPG battles, so I really liked the phased combat system -- although battles with far-away or round-the-corner creatures aren't handled as well.

The variety of strategies, monsters, and environments keeps evolving as the game progresses -- like most of the Wiz series, there's some especially tough Bosses that you can avoid or try to take out.

Like the other Wiz games, you can join one or both of the main factions or go it alone.

The Bad
There's a few arbitrary restrictions on where NPCs can go, which makes planning your excursions less open-ended than I'd like (work-around: use NPCs as "extras" rather than key team members).

The monster AI is about the best for this genre, but it's still not up to shooter level.

And, just when you think you've gotten to the end of the game and released the final level...well, you're only about 3/4 through the game. The End Game lasts a long time.

(And, like other Wiz games, your PCs will get tired, run out of inventory space, and run out of mana sooner than you'd like -- but, if you have an open mind about this, you'll see it's probably a fair game balance.)

The Bottom Line
I won't describe the storyline in detail. Plenty of reviews on the net do that already. Instead, here are my thoughts on how different types of players will react to this game.

(I played this game on a 500 MHz laptop w/1 MB vRAM and 512 MB RAM. This was fine, although it played better on a 1.5 GHz machine w/separate v-card.)

Wizardry Fans: IMO, the best. It has all the fun of the first 7 games without all the click and get confused tedium. It has the only storyline of the 8 games that actually has a reasonable ending (although it's a let down, 8 games later).

Might & Magic Fans: If you're disappointed in MM9, this is your fix for a traditional dungeon crawling cRPG. You'll rate it one of your favorites.

TES Fans: not nearly as open ended and the 1st "team" (instead of 1st-person) perspective might trip you up, but you'll like if not love it. It might not make your top 5 list, but it will make your favorites list.

AD&D fans will be disappointed. Not nearly as much chance of role-playing. You'll complain about classes and 1st person perspective for a team. You'll dislike the levelling system. But, if you can get past that, you'll enjoy the story and adventure and have a good time.

Action-game players will also be disappointed. Limited graphics, unexciting sound.

Adventure-game players will probably like the game, unless they really enjoy high definition cut-scenes and well defined storylines. The game allows you to travel pretty much where you want when you want (except for the endgame areas...and keep in mind, some areas will be too tough to handle).

Bottom Line: a top game. Given how much they got right, it's too bad Sir-Tech is now out of business. If they teamed up (again!) with the Wizards & Warriors crowd, they'd have a unbeatable combination.

The Good
Though I was leery of the change to free motion and 3D modeling, these were well used and added to the game instead of hurting it. All the things that were great about the Bradley part of the Wizardry series were there - real role-playing decisions, a plot with the right degree of complexity, continuity with the predecessor games. In the Wizardry tradition, some of the puzzles were quite obscure but they mostly made sense.

The Bad
Sometimes there were problems with controlling your party movement. Some fights were rendered artificially difficult because of 3D problems like monsters partly in walls.

The Bottom Line
If you liked the earlier Bradley Wizardries, you will likely love this one. It manages to be pretty without failing to be Wizardry.